After being admitted at 1am, Isabel was seen by a doctor who sent her home after five hours - although she could hardly walk to her mother's car.

Mrs Booty told the inquest: "I was concerned that the examination was not particularly thorough and that the doctor was distracted.

"The school letter we had seemed to make no difference to the risk assessment which was undertaken."

Nurses reassured the pair that "it was just a virus" and she would recover in a couple of days, the inquest was told.

Isabel struggled to walk to the car and said: "I can't believe they're sending me home Mum, I feel so ill."

The following day Mrs Booty phoned her GP surgery at 5.10pm but was told it was too late for a home visit that day.

Due to Izzy's worsening condition Mrs Booty called for an ambulance at 5.30pm.

Ambulance staff arrived, by which time the teenager was unable to communicate and her limbs were "thrashing and flailing".

Within half an hour of arriving at A&E, Mrs Booty was told it was likely her daughter had meningitis, and she was taken to the intensive care unit.

But the following day her condition worsened and an MRI scan showed irreparable brain swelling had occurred and brain stem death had taken place.

Her death was recorded at 7.30pm on May 20, two days after Isabel had posted on Twitter: "Lol I knew something was up. Did not expect I'd be rushed to hospital in an ambulance, how peak."

Paramedic Pippa Bishop told the inquest she had been unable to pre-alert the hospital as she had to restrain Isabel on the stretcher.

Senior coroner for Avon, Maria Voisin, said: "Would it have been preferable to pre-alert before leaving the scene?"

Ms Bishop said: "With hindsight it would have been."

The inquest heard that the cause of death was "most likely meningococcal meningitis".

University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said in a rapid review after Izzy's death that the assessment and treatment were "appropriate" as initial symptoms were "not typical of meningitis".

Izzy's mother told the inquest she had told paramedics, nurses and the doctor that a fellow pupil alt St Brendan's Sixth Form College had recently been diagnosed with meningitis and that the school had issued a warning letter to parents.

Tributes quickly flooded in for the popular teenager with dozens describing her as a "gorgeous" and "bubbly" young woman who had an "amazing energy".

The inquest in to her death is scheduled to last for five days and presided over by senior coroner, Maria Voisin.